I am closing the Asia chapter of this race. It has been 5 months and what an incredible 5 months they were. Asia was never on my radar to visit, but when God told me the route he wanted me to go on, Asia was the majority. He had something in store for me here.
I have been in the Philippines this month. The first part of the month I was with my parents working with girls who work in bars (read my previous blog “Dancing In The Bars With My Parents”).
The second week I was in the province of Makati in Manila with a team doing Unsung Heroes looking for potential future contacts for the World Race. We had meetings with different ministries throughout the city of Manila. And I also became an aunt! Thank God for technology! God told me I would be apart of this special day in my family’s life and he kept his promise and I was able to Facetime into the waiting room with the rest of my family eagerly awaiting the arrival of my brother’s first child. I was there when my brother came out to announce, “It’s a boy!” An eruption of shouts and cries and laughter filled the waiting as well as the room that I was in on my end. I could not control my excitement. I was jumping up and down, crying tears of joy as my brother became a father to sweet Luca James. I didn’t know my heart was capable of loving a little being the way I do. I get to hold him in 2 months!
And the third week I was in the mountains of San Mateo living and working at a house where street boys come for camp. I was able to escape the chaos and busyness of the city and live in a mountain oasis. It was so lush and green. The mountains were in my backyard! We did construction, cleaning around the house, painted a mural with the verse Proverbs 3:5-6, which by the way is my favorite verse, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understandings, in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight.” And had a graduation for 19 women who diligently came every Wednesday to a class on how to raise their children. There were lots of babies to hold!
Our last night with this ministry, we had the opportunity to go out into the streets and hang out with the boys that come to a camp at the house. Our intention was to sleep with them on the streets and see how they live. There were 13 boys. Some of them have families, but would rather live on the streets because they are free and don’t have any responsibilities. Others are orphans. This program targets young boys to teach them about responsibility, to teach them about Jesus, and to teach and encourage them to grow up to be a man that takes care of his family.
We were able to feed them dinner and play with them in a park. They swung on swings, went down slides, ran around like children until they got so exhausted they fell asleep on the ground of the park. At 11pm the park closed so we had to go elsewhere. We all pilled into a jeepney (a mode of local transportation) and headed to the location the kids usually sleep. With 14 foreigners and 14 kids, we turned heads walking through the streets. Word got out that a group of foreigners were hanging around and a gang didn’t like us being in their territory. Some of the boys we were hanging out with are apart of a gang. One of the older boys is the leader of the younger boys in this gang. They are sweet kids. They are no different from your children, they were just born in a different country in different circumstances. Most choose to be in a gang because that is a way of protection while on the streets. Some don’t know they have other options. Some don’t know they have a heavenly Father that loves them and wants to take care of them.
This program is a way to show a way out. A way to show Jesus. A way they can be taken care of. They don’t have to live on the streets. They don’t have to be in a gang. But they do have to take responsibility, but be shown that responsibility is a good thing and not a burden. They also need to be shown that they are worthy to be loved, and to be fought for.
We were not able to sleep on the streets with them, but we did get a glimpse of what it was like to be in these kids’ shoes. We walked them to their sleeping spot, which was in an alley across the street from many loud bars, trash on the street, odd smells. And as I left them I was thinking about how I have the privilege to sleep in a bed in an air-conditioned room. It broke my heart, but I also felt a sense of hope and comfort. As I look at these young boys I see hope. I see God’s children. God has never left them. God is sleeping on the streets with them. We prayed over the kids before we left them and I know Jesus was there. I know the Holy Spirit is present with them.
Living a life with Jesus doesn’t leave us sad or hopeless. Living a life with Jesus gives us hope, joy, peace, comfort. There is more to life than what meets the human eye. There is another world that we cannot see with just the human eye. There is a spiritual world around us where angels walk with us and protect us; where demons are trying to bring us down by telling us lies; but where the Holy Spirit is more alive then anything fighting with us and for us. There is nothing to fear or worry or be afraid of when God is on our side. He is bigger than anything that comes our way. Find hope in him. Find peace in him. Find joy in him. Find comfort in him. He is all these things and more.
“But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”
John 14:26-27
“Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.”
Romans 8:5-7
“You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.”
Romans 8:9
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